The Wizard's Secret
by Rory Granger
Summary: ONE-SHOT. Alex and Justin spend a couple of hours in the lair and their relationship changes. What's going to be Jerry's and Theresa's reaction? And why does Max thinks he will be the family wizard? read on to find out! Fixed POV confussion, now you can tell who's talking.
1. Chapter 1

Theresa entered the kitchen in a rush, with her little apron tied on her back and the pad still in her hand.

"Jerry" she whispered "Come on, Jerry, get here"

I just finished the sandwich I was working on and moved close to her.

"Okay, what?"

"They are talking nicely, not killing each other" she smiled, happy.

"So you think there's a chance?" I asked, suddenly excited. I looked through the hole in the kitchen and saw them. They did look happy, not bickering as they always did.

"Jerry! We might have a chance!" Theresa danced happily around me as Max entered the kitchen.

"What's going on?" he asked "What are we looking at?" Theresa gave me a quick glance and I just got back to the sandwiches

"Nothing, Max, get back to work" I said, trying my best to look cool. I guess I didn't succeed, Max just went out giggling and Theresa followed him.

We kept doing our work for a while, business as usual, as I say. Not thinking about the implications of what was going on outside.

Soon, Theresa came back in, excited again.

"You see that, Jerry?" she asked, pointing at the kids. "They are definitely on the path to love, cute, huh?"

"Sure!" I said, keeping my eyes on the sandwich. She promptly gave me a punch on the arm that made me look over. "They are getting closer, remember the time he helped her with that big problem she got in?"

"He always helps her!" Theresa said, throwing her arms into the air. "But she did help him when he was in that train station surrounded by monsters."

"She did, I remember" I got back to the sandwiches. "They have to realize it by themselves, we can't say a thing, you know that, right?"

"I remember, yes" she said, walking out the kitchen and into the restaurant again. That was a story we never told the kids.

After a sandwich or two, there was some commotion on the restaurant, some screaming and what I clearly recognized as a customer leaving in a hurry, angrily and without paying.

"Dad!" a screaming voice came from the restaurant, followed quickly by its owner, Alex stepped in front of me, angry. "Justin says I screwed his order! And I, for once, didn't!"

"What did you do?" I asked her, arming myself of patience, as I do every time I talk to her.

"We are not talking about that" she said, in that tone she uses when she's trying to get away with something "We are talking about what Justin did to me"

I kept quiet, staring at her, waiting for my daughter to say what she always says. But someone burst in before she got a chance.

"Dad!" Justin barked, angry "Alex just threw my order all over the place!"

"No, I didn't" she barked back, red as a traffic light. "Dad, this time it wasn't me!"

I just lost my patience. If they continued like that, we would never have a chance.

"Ok, you two" I said, almost tired, walked to the entrance of the lair and opened the door. "You get in there and figure this out, you're not coming out of there until you make up"

I saw his surprised faces and the way Alex's mouth opened and closed and then opened and closed again, that was really funny. Justin's eye started to twitch and his face went all red, and that was funny too. They looked at each other and mumbled something, getting into the lair, Alex first, Justin followed. I closed the door and just then Max entered the kitchen.

"What's going on?" he asked, trying to get into the lair.

"Don't get in there" I commanded "Your brother and sister have to figure something out. You can't get in there, but you can help me by doing the in through the out door spell."

"Sure!" he said, and got out his wand. He scratched his head for a couple of seconds and said "Which one was that again?"

"Just repeat, son" I answered him "Make these troubles no more, go in through the outdoor"

"Oh, yeah, that one!" he said, and cast the spell. Now the kids were trapped in there.


	2. Chapter 2

"This is all your fault!" I mumbled, while entering the lair. Justin followed and the door was closed after us.

"It's not and you know it" he said, sitting on the sofa. I just looked at him, in disbelief.

"Are you going to sit in there and do nothing?" I asked him, angrily. "Really? Nothing?"

"What are you talking about?" he said, clueless. I just threw my arms into the air and turned around to the door.

"I'm getting out of here" I explained, opening the lair's door to the kitchen. "I can't be stuck in here with you forever"

And I came back in through the lair's door to the magic world.

"They did the in through the out door spell!" Justin screamed, getting up from the sofa.

"Really, genius?" I said, passing by his side and sitting on the chair in front of him. For a split second I could smell his cologne and my heart rate skyrocketed. I just kept my head down and put my hair in between the two of us. I knew I had flushed. That feeling was not new. It had been happening for a while, like a year or so. It started in a very small way, some random thoughts about how cute he was just crept into my consciousness almost without my notice. Slowly, sometimes I kept looking at him, when no one noticed, lost into his eyes.

But I couldn't do that, it was not right. He was my brother and that's not the way brothers and sisters are supposed to feel for each other. Period. I had my boundaries.

"We can't get out" he said, after a couple of minutes of silence. "We might at least try to fix this"

"Fix what?" I asked, with my arms closed and still looking down.

"Us" he said, softly, peering into my eyes, like he was looking for something he wasn't sure was there. I'm sure I blushed again. That's what happens when you're eighteen and still a teenager, you blush a lot.

"There's nothing to fix" I said, turning around in my chair and keeping mi eyes out of reach. "There's nothing, period."

He didn't say a thing. I looked at him and saw his sad eyes averting my gaze, like he was deeply hurt. That confused me, the one hurt was evidently me. I got back to my position, looking elsewhere but at him.

He kept quiet for a while, giving me some time to catch a glimpse of his body language. I peeked and saw him stretched on the couch, with his hands behind his back and his feet on the other side, hanging out of it. His eyes closed and his hair all messy, the way it looked the best. I reprimanded myself, I shouldn't entertain those thoughts anymore. I got up and started to walk around. I had to do something about this situation. I started picking up things, just to do something. I didn't care what they were, I just needed to keep my hands busy, that should have kept my mind busy as well. It didn't work. Justin was still there, looking adorably asleep.

The hours went by, Justin opened his eyes eventually, just to watch me play with one of uncle Kelbo's presents. And reprimand me accordingly, of course. Then he closed his eyes again. And the butterflies in my stomach stopped flying around.

He eventually got up and walked around for a while, talking to himself. I just stared at him, trying to keep the smile from creeping onto my face as I saw him being too cute. I really loved that, the way he was just weird and adorable. He came closer and looked right at me, intently, then looked away. I could almost see him flushing, but that was surely my imagination. Then he stopped and took a book out of the shelf.

"We could keep studying for the wizard competition while we are here" he said, with an unsure voice, sitting on one of the stools next to the table. I realized for a second that he wasn't reading at all. Flustered, I walked up to the coach.

"We could" I gave in, taking a book from a nearby table and jumping on the couch. That was something else to keep me occupied. Something else to focus on instead of Justin. Slowly, my eyes started to close. I couldn't hold the book anymore and it must have fallen out of my hand and to the floor. It had been a really rough day.

I woke up some hours later. I was covered with a nice and soft blanket and my head rested on a comfy pillow. I knew this was Justin's work. I snuggled for a little while, indulging on my sweet thoughts about him. Then I sat up and looked for him, he was asleep on dad's comfy chair. He didn't look comfy, though. I decided this was my chance of being nice to him. I got up, took my wand from my boot, and moved him through magic to the couch. He wasn't comfy either. I had to fix him manually, but that meant I had to actually touch him. My heart raced while my brain tried to make sense of everything, to assure myself that he was just my brother. I fixed his feet to get them inside the couch, and then his head dropped to the side. I kneel beside the couch, took his head in my hands and looked at him. He looked so sweet when he was asleep.

He opened his eyes.

"Hi Alex" he whispered, and smiled softly. Those freaking butterflies started flying again.

"Hi, Justin" I said, without thinking, lost in his eyes. He sat on the couch and I sat at his side, I couldn't take my hands off his head. He kept smiling and I guess I smiled back. My hands slowly dropped to his neck. He didn't mind.

"Good morning" he whispered again, and leaned closer to me. I didn't move away. I couldn't think straight, clearly.

"Good morning" I whispered back. And I know I smiled that time. I could feel his heart racing below my hands. I didn't know why that was happening, I just knew it felt right.

That's when I kissed him.

Full on the mouth, softly at first, but then, when he kissed me back, I couldn't hold it anymore. I kissed him passionately, hungrily. With my arms around his neck I run my hands through his hair, and smiled when he got his hands around my waist and pulled me closer. That felt good, it felt right. I knew we were doing the right thing, even if my brain screamed against it.

Suddenly, the door to the restaurant opened. We jumped out of each other's arms and our hearts were racing for a very different reason.

"Alex! Justin!" I heard my mom scream. We were too surprised to say a thing. Justin just hugged me and I rested my head against his chest. My mother came in and stared at our embrace. My dad was behind her, staring at us as well. But I would have never guessed the look on their eyes and the expression on their faces.

They were happy.

"Theresa!" Dad said, with a very wide smile "Look at them"

"I am looking, Jerry" she said, smacking his arm "It finally happened!"

"I know" he said, turning around at her. "I thought it was not going to happen ever"

"What's going on?" Max appeared through the door "Why are Justin and Alex hugging?"

"Yes Dad" I said, calmer than before "What is happening?"

Mom and Dad exchanged a knowing look and they walked towards us. Mom motioned Max to come near. Dad sat on the chair and Mom sat by our side on the couch. Justin didn't want to let me go, so he sat on the couch and got me to sit on his lap. Max just sat on the floor.

"Ok, kids" Dad started "I have to tell you one of the least known of the wizards secrets, listen carefully"

Once upon a time, in a world far, far away, two human beings made a wonderful discovery. They could do magic. It was a surprising discovery, no one else ever had done it. There were unicorns and banshees, and elves and trolls. But no wizards until them. They were a couple, a brother and a sister, if you want to say it that way, just because they were the only human beings ever.

They discovered that their offspring got the magic they had, but they got less of it. And then, when the kids grew up, they needed even more magic, leaving less and less for each of them. The kids soon got kids of their own, leaving even less magic for everyone. And suddenly, the original brother and sister realized that they had a problem on their hands. The wizard population would rise exponentially and the amount of magic was not rising alongside, soon, there wouldn't be enough magic to make a difference. That's why they invented the wizard competition.

Later, something else caught their eye, as wizard's and mortal's populations started to grow, there were some mortals who were scared of wizards, some of them wanted to eradicate them even. That's how they started to look for a good place to establish the wizard community and to figure out how to keep it secret from mortals. And that's how the secret began.

Finally, they realized that if the number of mixed marriages was too large, someday mortals would find out about wizards, there would be too many mortals in on the secret. So, they decided to promote the marriages between wizards, by making a simple spell. Every magic family had to have at least one boy and one girl, and they must fall in love for the magic to continue on the family. If they failed to do so before the wizard competition- as you two almost did- there would be no wizards in that family. Sadly, that might mean that neither of you would get to be the family wizard, because there can't be a mixed marriage. Like what happened to your mom and I. You have to be both mortals or both wizards."

And that's when Max rose from the floor and jumped up and down screaming

"I will be the family wizard! I will be the family wizard!"

He didn't know that, a few months later, he would be the only mortal amongst us. I got to be the family wizard and my adorable boyfriend got the best job ever for him: WizardTec Headmaster.

And that's how it all played out. Justin and I are still together, we got married three years ago. We have a cute little boy and are expecting the second one, hoping its a girl.


End file.
